[600MRG] Results from the Smokies

[Ed Cole]

Brandy,

Just a tip on the coil taps:  I soldered mine after tuning, bring a lead 
out to a brass bolt for connecting my antenna lead (center wire of RG-213).

I found tuning shifted in frozen winter soil vs summer soil, so I added 
another tap to make the change-over easy.  My loading coil is bare No. 
12 thhn and so are the taps, though only the end were stripped of 
insulation.

I use the adjustable coil filter on input of m surplus NDB transmitter. 
I follows a 2n2222 pre-driver.  I drive with < 1mw from the transverter 
output of my K3.

Originally I used my SDR-IQ for Rx but with modifications of bandpass 
coil in my K3 is now is also able to tune down to 100-KHz, so when I 
have new vertical-T antenna raised I will try reception using it.  I can 
use SDR-IQ in parallel or take 8.205 MHz IF from the K3 to the SDR-IQ.

Spotting signals on waterfall trace of the SDR-IQ is nice.

Estimate mid-Sept to mid-Oct for antenna raising.

73, Ed - KL7UW

On 8/19/2022 4:48 AM, Bayard Coolidge, N1HO via 600MRG wrote:
> Greetings, everyone!
> 
> As I make incremental improvements in my station here in Hendersonville, 
> NC, and as the season
> progresses, I'm getting better results on my overnight WSPR runs. On 
> Wednesday, I changed a couple
> of connections out at the coil to provide a better ground resistance as 
> well as a tighter connection
> at the coil tap point. I was using a small alligator clip that had a 
> weak spring and didn't bite too hard.
> 
> I cranked up the amplifier voltage, and thereby its output, but my 
> calculations didn't include my coil losses,
> so I will re-rerun my numbers and adjust accordingly.
> 
> That said, I was heard by 39 uniques across 1387 spots, with the best DX 
> being 1474km. I heard 14 uniques
> across 340 spots, with the best DX at 2012km (W5GNB in SE NM !). In 
> looking at the resulting map on
> WSPRnet, I note that there were basically no stations (either way) south 
> of me, and I think that may have
> been due to a cold front that swept the region overnight along an 
> east-west line that drifted south - we had
> some rain around 0615-0730Z. The 195 foot horizontal leg of my 
> inverted-L at 60 feet runs 340 degrees (~NNE).
> 
> I'm also planning on reworking my receive bandpass filter which, when 
> initially tested early last week, exhibited
> about 20dB attenuation across the band as displayed by my P3 
> Panadaptor's noise floor. I found the necessary
> coax adapters and a fairly precise 50 Ohm terminator and discovered that 
> the filter has a single, sharp response
> at 467 kHz, so I will be tweaking turns, etc. to set it up correctly. It 
> will help reduce gain compression caused by
> a very strong NDB at a nearby airport.
> 
> Very 73,
> 
> Brandy, N1HO (EM85sg)
> 
> 
> 
> 
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